<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Keith Urban kicks back on a control-room couch in Nashville&amp;apos;s Blackbird Studio and sings the falsetto hook to his 2009 hit &amp;quot;Kiss a Girl&amp;quot;: &amp;quot;Say goodbye to all these blues&amp;#x2009;.&amp;#x2009;.&amp;#x2009;.&amp;#x2009;&amp;quot; Just a couple of years ago, a vocal injury left him unable to hit those high notes on tour. But now &amp;#x2013; after surgery from the same doctor who treated John Mayer, followed by a year spent getting his voice back and another in the studio &amp;#x2013; the country star is re-emerging with an arena-ready, eclectic LP, Fuse (due out September 10th). &amp;quot;It&amp;apos;s not like I&amp;apos;ve gone off and done a polka album or a screamo album,&amp;quot; he says with a laugh. &amp;quot;I just wanted to see how far I could go before it&amp;apos;s not me.&amp;quot;\r\nWorking with a team of top producers including Dr. Dre protege Mike Elizondo, Pink collaborator Butch Walker and longtime associate Dann Huff, Urban cut a set of tunes that combines the big, open melodies he&amp;apos;s known for with surprising electro elements. &amp;quot;If you put a really great, wicked drum loop under a song,&amp;quot; he says, &amp;quot;you end up with something really interesting.&amp;quot; Lead single &amp;quot;Little Bit of Everything&amp;quot; features dramatic strings and a heavy programmed beat; other highlights range from the stadium-size ballad &amp;quot;Cop Car,&amp;quot; about a Bonnie and Clyde-style couple, to the uncharacteristically abrasive &amp;quot;Even Stars Fall 4 U.&amp;quot;\r\n&amp;quot;It&amp;apos;s sort of industrial-punk-ish, relative to what I do,&amp;quot; he says of the track. &amp;quot;Not like anything I&amp;apos;ve done before.&amp;quot;\r\nAt a turning point in his career, Urban looked for inspiration to a landmark album by an adventurous group of fellow superstars. &amp;quot;I really love what U2 did with Achtung Baby,&amp;quot; he says, explaining how he related to the crossroads the legendary Irish quartet found themselves at when transitioning into the Nineties.\r\n500 Greatest Albums of All Time: U2, Achtung Baby\r\n&amp;quot;Bono said, [Achtung Baby] had to be the sound of [U2] chopping down The Joshua Tree,&amp;apos; which I thought was great,&amp;quot; Urban says, noting that he obsessively watched From the Sky Down, It Might Get Loud director Davis Guggenheim&amp;apos;s 2011 documentary about the making of the album.\r\n&amp;quot;That&amp;apos;s where I found myself at,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;I can keep making the same record, but I don&amp;apos;t want to do that.&amp;quot;\r\nWhile Urban says he&amp;apos;s not comparing Fuse to Achtung Baby, he did aim to emulate U2&amp;apos;s &amp;quot;fusion of machinery and organic elements,&amp;quot; recognizing that he runs the risk of alienating fans of his earlier work. That&amp;apos;s a big concern.\r\n&amp;quot;I was recording [at a studio] one time and on the wall someone had written, &amp;apos;There&amp;apos;s two sure ways to lose your audience: Always give them what they want, and never give them what they want,&amp;quot; he recalls. &amp;quot;It really stayed with me, because I went, &amp;apos;Well, that is the job at hand.&amp;quot;\r\nUrban goes on to compare U2&amp;apos;s transition from Joshua Tree to Achtung Baby to the aesthetic expansion and shape-shifting definition of country music as a whole. &amp;quot;There&amp;apos;s nothing new about crossover country material,&amp;quot; Urban says in defense of the genre&amp;apos;s cyclical evolution. &amp;quot;That&amp;apos;s happened since the Fifties. Glen Campbell was just much a pop star as he was a country star. There&amp;apos;s really nothing much country about &amp;apos;Wichita Lineman.&amp;apos; The singer makes it country. What Taylor [Swift] is doing [now], Barbara Mandrell was doing that in the Eighties, [and] Shania Twain did it in the Nineties.\r\n&amp;quot;I&amp;apos;ve always found country to be basically like a church,&amp;quot; he muses. &amp;quot;It&amp;apos;s got to keep evolving, but it&amp;apos;s gotta do it in a way that it doesn&amp;apos;t lose its values or its core congregation. But it has to continue attracting new parishioners.&amp;quot;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/in-the-studio-keith-urban-looking-to-make-countrys-achtung-baby-20130812>